Someone calls Walz ‘faggot’ before media conference call

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The Mankato Democrat wasn’t on the line to hear the anti-gay slur; in fact, he ran about five minutes late to his own availability, following a trip to Afghanistan. Before Walz came on the line, someone said, “Come on Walz, you f—ing faggot,” according to his staff and two reporters who were on the call.

Meredith Salsbery, Walz’s district communications director, says she doesn’t know who made the offensive remark, though the voice was clearly a man’s. She said participants did not have to identify themselves on the call — which was publicized via a media list emailed to traditional journalists, radio hosts and bloggers.

Two reporters on the call, the Rochester Post-Bulletin’s Heather J. Carlson and Star Tribune’s Jill Burcum, said they couldn’t identify the person, either. So for now, it’s a guessing game.

Whoever made the offensive remark didn’t repeat his act; Salsbery says when Walz joined the call, the questions were professional and appropriate.

“It was a unique event,” says Salsbery, who has worked for Walz since 2005. “A few reporters contacted me afterward to say it was totally inappropriate, not representative, and they did not enjoy hearing it.”

There’s an outside chance the utterer wasn’t in the media; anyone could call in to the 800 number and join with the appropriate access code. Salsbery acknowledges her email instructions could’ve been forwarded to someone outside the profession, though that possibility seems remote.

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Comments (3)

Once twice three times I personally question if this is a worthy story at all in any form. Recently read a Washington Post Weekly cover story on the populist right wing rage. It has been around since 1945 at least, you might not believe some of the foolishness. Anyways consensus seriously started breaking down when Goldwater came around. These small minor extreme nut cases would have been ignored by Walter Cronkite but that was back in the day when we had fully staffed foreign bureaus and no lack of notable news to cover. Not a dig but parts of Minnpost (not yours or anybody in paticular are getting tiresome).
Minnpost has some really really great stories and some of those get no comments. Anyways keep writing.